Sideburns,
sideboards, or
side whiskers are patches of
facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to below the ears. The term
sideburns is a 19th-century
corruption of the original
burnsides, named after
American Civil War general
Ambrose Burnside, a man known for his unusual facial hairstyle that connected thick sideburns by way of a
moustache, but left the chin
clean-shaven. "Burnsides" became "sideburns" probably because of their location on the side of the face.